CWD

Thanks for the updates The9, appreciate it

It is concerning that the club flaunt this "Southampton Way" which is meant to be so important, and yet it seems so many of our best players don't buy into it or believe the club's ambition is achievable. Here's a question I'd be interested in hearing people's thoughts on. If Dimitri Payet played for Saints, and had the same season he had for WHU/France, would we have been able to keep hold of him like West Ham have? My honest thought is no, and that is worrying. We have to trust in the club though. Like it or not, this is the business plan so we all may as well get on board.

Started looking a little better in that last 10-15 minutes. Still think we could win this. Don't like the number of aimless long balls we're playing though. And crosses have been poor - why put so many in with Long and Redmond up against three CBs??

This is dreadful. Not able to keep possession at all

Strongest bench we've ever had?

Try being a bit excited guys! We're playing Watford not Barcelona We finished 6th last season We have a good side

Looks like Austin is taking the #10 shirt then

I don't know

Lol it's so funny how people always love to be extreme in their opinions. Saintsweb: "Awful", "Vomit Inducing". Twitter: "Best shirt we've ever had", "Love it" It's a shirt. And it's fine. Some will like it, some won't, some will buy it, some won't. Get on with your lives people!

WHU and Leicester both likely to offer more money and Leicester have CL footy too. Can't see him coming here if it's a straight choice. Would love to be proven wrong though!

Welcome Claude! Hope he does well, and I trust the club have made the right choice. Speaks English too which is great. Love that people are writing off Eric Black coz he was at Villa while they were ****. Dave Watson has been on the coaching team for two failed International tournaments with England, is he **** too? Get behind the new team, welcome to Saints!

Interesting. What is the benefit of doing this? Not doubting you, just genuinely curious

Wonder what the delay in announcing is? We all know it's him

This is a brilliant post. People should print this out and put it on their wall or something. As a group of fans, we seem to get so emotionally attached to players,and I'm not excluding myself from this. I think it comes from our time in the lower leagues, where we had a core group of players who achieved so much together and created so many memories for themselves and for us as fans. The togetherness they had was unrivalled and we all felt an affinity with them that we had never before had with footballers. But life in the PL isn't like that. We need to accept that players will come and go, and be proud of the improvement and development they undergo while they're here. Athletico Madrid are another club who sell a lot of players, and I remember Simeone saying that Costa would go to Chelsea with his blessing and that, "players come and we make them better" (not sure of the exact quote). We also need to stop being embarrassed by it. Atleti, Ajax... All the clubs St. Armstrong mentioned - they're lauded and admired for their ability to maintain the cycle of finding players, developing players, selling players for a profit (and repeat), whereas Saints seem to be patronised for it. It's always gutting when a player wants to leave our club, because we love the club and everyone of us has dreamed of wearing that shirt and we want players who feel the same. However those players are rare these days, we just happened to be spoiled to have a few when in L1/NPC. So just continue to love the club. Trust in what the club is doing, and crucially in what it has proved it is adept at doing. And keep reminding yourself that the club is bigger than any player. Losing Mané is a blow, but we picked him up from a random Austrian team. There'll be other gems out there to replace him. Wish he wasn't going to ****ing Liverpool though

This would be fantastic. From losing to Rochdale in League 1 to finishing top 6 in the PL and potentially appointing Manuel Pellegrini as manager is just incredible.

*likes

I don't really know enough about Puel and Pereira other than what I've seen and read over the last few days. I trust the club to make the right decision but I'm going with Pelligrini for now simply because: - PL experience - Europe experience - pretty 'big' name - Feels like he might stick around a while as he's a bit older and like England - I'd heard of him two weeks ago

Pretty sure someone linked an article from a couple of years ago which described Pereira as a fluent English speaker

I'm in the keep him camp. We don't have another striker who can offer what he does, an as mentioned he seems popular with the team and I LOVE his passion. Every goal is like the last minute of a cup final. Also when they're on form his link up play with Mané and especially Tadic is sublime. I think every squad can only benefit from having a target man type However, if the club have a replacement lined up (which if they're this happy to let him go you would expect they do) then that's a different story...

Christ I wish they'd hurry up and announce this so we can all get on with our lives

Didn't vote straight away as I wanted to think about it. Emery - would obviously be an incredible appointment but I'm concerned about lack of English and if we did get him, not sure he'd be here more than a year. Pellegrini - big name with history of doing well with clubs our size (Malaga) but I think it unlikely. Doesn't fit the ethos of the club at all, so a no on that one. Howe - I think he'll be our manager one day but for now, still think he's a couple of years away from being ready. Moyes - people exaggerate his failings. Imagine if he'd been linked whilst he was still at Everton - we'd be creaming ourselves. He'd add stability and make us hard to beat, but I don't think he has the brand of football the club want. AVB - stitched up at Chelsea, did alright at Spurs... But doesn't want to come back to England. Think it's a non starter personally That leaves De Boer. Young, plays the right style, decent record in Europe. I think it's a no brainer when you compare him to the other options that he would be the clubs choice. So he's my choice too

That's from weeks ago mate

If that's true we have fully mugged them off. Ridiculous fee. Especially if we go and appoint an out of work manager.

Well this escalated quickly... A potential U-turn of Fabian Delph proportions in the offing, not to mention a seriously eggy faced telegraph journalist For my part I've learned over the last couple of years that these sorts of stories get blown out of proportion so quickly nowadays. Spend half an hour reading a forum or Twitter and a story quickly becomes a saga. Every post becomes a possibility, every tweet a potential insight. Fact is we'll find out either way when a decision is made, but til then I'm taking a break from social media.

I know our policy on youth has evolved slightly over the last couple of years, but I'd be very surprised if we started loaning in young players from other clubs, consequently moving our own youth players down the pecking order.